they had heard there sounding as the waves lapped up against the
embankment and the crowd laughed and chatted after; those strains to
which she had then been deaf on account of her agitation came back now,
and the thrill of her pain was there still, rising and falling amidst
the music and the water breaking up against the stones. While she waited
on the verge of tears, the whole shifted to Constance, and through the
slow sweep of the steamers coming into the harbor sounded the "Souvenir"
of Vieuxtemps, drifting across the rose-laden air and carrying her back
to the minutes when--Ah, when! She put her hand before her eyes and it
was not the cords of his violin, but the sinews of her soul which
responded to his bow. That which man may not voice he played, and that
which our ears may not hear she absorbed into the depths of her being.
Something within them each burst bonds and met at last, but neither knew
it then, and the wonder carried her out upon the bosom of the Bodensee,
showed her the charm of its gracious peace, and then drifted as the
breezes drift, to the concert in the open air that is given each day by
the Feldherrnhalle, a concert that knows no discord, because the murmur
of life, the calls of the birds, the splashing of the fountains, and the
light-hearted joy of the crowd around, all meet and mingle in its
chorus. He echoed them all with the sublimity of the power which he
controlled, and all--bird-calls, fountain-drip, desultory laughter, and
careless joy, all flowed from him, and took from him as they flowed that
subtle and precious subconsciousness which lines our every cloud with
the infinite hope that is better than all else in this world.

She leaned forward breathlessly, her fingers interlaced around her
knees; her eyes had grown as dark as his own, her heart stood still, and
between its throbs she asked herself if _this_ was the secret of their
sympathy,--if _this_ was the basis of his mastery.

Then there was silence in the room and he stood motionless, his eyes on
the floor, the violin still resting against his shoulder in its rightful
position, above his heart, quite touching his head.

She did not speak and he did not speak,--neither knew for how long that
period of silence endured. But after a while he lowered the instrument
and looked at her.

"You like, yes?" he said with a faint smile.

"Can you ask?"

He laid his hand upon a vase that sat upon the table and shook his head.

"All thi